{idate}20nov07 {cdate}20oct07 {tags}abstracts,vase,CiM, {#indextags}Tags,Indexes,Subindexes, {#indexof}Make,This,An,Index, {thumb}GlassBeads/2007abs_vase_CiMgreen2330crop.jpg {summary}3 vases in the "CiM peacock green test series". Originally posted 20nov07 {crop}GlassBeads/2007abs_vase_CiMgreen2330crop.jpg {crop_title}3 abstract vases made with Color is Messy translucents {#crop_target} {iplc}Here we have another "month-old post" (literally started this one exactly 1 month ago), this time about some more color is messy beads using Thompson enamels. Now that I have my camera back, I expect I'll have to get back to making posts regularly. Plus, ever so slowly, Page and I moving to creating an etsy store, so I'll be double posting that stuff as well. Below, some rambling about a charming animated film I saw. {ip}Over the weekend we visited my sister-in-law, who in exchange for the trivial effort of slotting in the winter storm glass in her screen doors, and carting a few branches out to the curb, fed us dinner and treated us to a movie, to wit, _Ratatouille_. ``Animation'' is probably my favorite film catagory, and this one looked cute; but then it got lambasted on some feminist boards. Le sigh. {ip}Dizzy, of course, does indeed have a terrible record in this regard, but actually, the film wasn't as nearly bad as I was expecting; and one reason it got a pass was the quite clear explication (only a little undercut) of a philosophy dear to my heart about art and who can make it: which is to say, everybody. The film, as you probably know, follows a fairly typical dizzy script, in which a reviled and misunderstood outsider, Remy the rat, makes good with the help of a totally clueless doofus, a young man named Linguini. {ip}What got the feminists up in arms is that Linguini becomes a superstar chef with the help of a rat in the course of a few days, whereas the only female character of note, Collette, has worked for years to master her craft, and never really has more than a supporting role. Plus, the only young female character is really pretty, whereas everyone else is average to ugly---especially the rats. Hated the character design of those, because rats are actually good-looking animals---so since the film was sympathetic, why didn't they put a bit of that cuteness in, instead of making them icky-eyed? (I always appreciated the handsome eyes on my pet gerbils, and rats are similar, except not having the furry tails.) {ip}Certainly all the other main characters---Remy the rat, Linguini the young man, Gustaeu the dead chef, Skinner the live one who takes over his restaurant, Anton Ego the critic, not to mention Remy's family, which is composed of his father and brother---are all male. As is every other employee of the restaurant besides Collette. Oh, wait, there are three other female characters: the old woman whose farmhouse the rat colony lives in to start; the female restaurant critic who first notices the new recipes; and one, lone female rat who (of course) begs the other rats (hundreds of 'em!) to save her baby. {ip}Once one gets past the typically skewed sex ratios (I couldn't say for rats, but real humans, at least, come in roughly 50/50 female-male percentages), the film does pretty well. (And at least the female characters are depicted in a positive way. In the last, also admittedly good and charming film I saw, _Secondhand Lions_, the three main female characters fall into that irritating category of `there to provide the protagonists motivation' and thus either a) die, or b) are villainous. By contrast, the old lady who initially provides Remy with exposure to the idea of good food is equally a take-no-prisoners dame with considerable gumption, the initial reviewer has enough clout to revive the restaurant's sagging reputation and Collette is obviously bright and competent, for as she observes in the film itself, women do not get anywhere in the world of fine cooking else.) {ip}So what about the art? {ip}Well, cooking is an art: that's the only reason I can stand doing it night after night, since it's so incredibly ephemeral. This is nicely illustrated near the beginning of the film when Remy's burgeoning recognition of smell and taste is depicted with colored swirleys, an abstract way of showing a sensation most people have few ways to articulate. I presume that those who love the culinary arts feel just as much for their discipline as I do for mine that our society would profit from greater exposure and training in our respective arts. Even better, not only is the brilliant Remy's experience shown this way, but later *so is his average brother's*, albeit on a smaller scale after Remy starts tutoring him (to be expected either because Emile lacks Remy's sensitivity or training, or both.) {ip}Remy learns his initial lessons out of Chef Gustaeu's cooking show and book, Anybody (or Everybody) Can Cook. The rest of his family is uninterested, and they're shortly separated, with Remy ending up at his idol's restaurant, now run by the former sous chef, who is cares only to market the deceased Gusteau's name on various frozen foods. The rat teams up with the garbage boy; and together they complement each other's skills and attributes (that is, Remy's skills with Linguini's humanness.) In a way, the film could be read as a metaphor about how despised subclasses nevertheless manage to presevere in the light of prejudice that forces them to disguise their differences. And the privilege thereof for people on top. {ip}While searching for the title of the book Gusteau wrote, I read several reviews, which though generally positive, ranged from clueless, through acceptable, to "insightful"---the clueless guy, ferex, totally lost the point of my favorite part in the film, in which Anton Ego the critic (brilliantly voiced by Peter O'Toole, who just edged out Collette as my favorite character) explains, ultimately, that while critics may help to sift through the mountains of dreck out there, all those creations being reviewed were made by real people (with real feelings) and that yes, really, all people can be creative---maybe not all geniuses, but all can make, and make worthwhile creations. *This* is the point the reviewer, who was carping about the director's generally positive reviews, totally failed to catch. It is this speech, as well as the critic's experience of the dish for which the film is named, on which the theme of the film ultimately turns. It at this point that the vulturous Ego becomes not merely Remy's antagonist, but a long suffering soul who has become hugely impatient with all those creators wasting their talents making dreck. {ip}People make dreck for all kinds of reasons, some of them legit: to put food on the table, because they're tired, because they're depressed, or stressed, or lack time, training or other resources they need; but ultimately, how wonderful when people do reach up, or out and create something fabulous. Because to create is to reach out to others, for all creations are a dialog, between creator and consumer (and never moreso for food!) {ip}So, yes, I liked this film. And it occurred to me that 99% of the feminist issues would've gone away if they'd just cast the main character as female. Which, mebbe, someday, this Brad Bird fellow will do, for though his films tend to favor male protagonists ( _Iron Giant_, highly recommended, and _The Incredibles_, a little less so because in that film, unlike this one, message is very nearly the opposite: You must be born incredible, and any effort to ramp yourself up via brains and technology means you're a villain) his female characters tend towards strength. As opposed to all too many run of the mill american animation (yes, the infamous udders on cows with male voices, not to mention _Antz_, which under a synopsis listing trivial ``errors'' such as the fact that ants attack termites, not vice versa, or can survive underwater, fails utterly to mention that every single character in that film should've been depicted as female.) {ip}Fortunately, beads do not have sex, and the "abstract kind I make" don't have gender, either;) {#b} {h1}Peacock Green, {h2}Or, the value of taking good notes {public} {p}So here we have three beads, and a confession: I spent several minutes trying to figure out what was going on with the bead on bead on the left, which as you might've noticed is blue, not green on the top. What, I wondered, was going on here? Did I use Halong Bay translucent blue instead? Was the bead all effetre? (Vase beads can use up to a rod of glass, and I only have two of each color. Since my mandate specifically instructed to mix CiM with other glasses, I saved glass and followed instructions by making the bottom of the bead in a pale transparent cobalt, e.g. 052 or 054, since the bases of my vase beads tend to be covered by the thompson enamel, a function of the fact that the bottom of the bead is on the distal end of the mandrel.) {icap}../GlassBeads/2007abs_vase_CiMgreen2330.jpg {cap}3 soda-lime beads, 2007, of effetre (specifically 054 or 052 cobalt trans blue), color is messy (peacock), thompson enamels, artist made frits, gold leaf, and pixie dust. Blue trailing on the one is ASK. Largest, 13x45mm. {p}After fetching the bead, examining it under two kinds of light, it finally dawned on me that I'd simply photographed it upside down. Duh. {p}However, this misunderstanding illustrates another, somewhat unfortunate point, at least from my point of view: much as I like the translucent colors, such as the peacock green used here, I haven't really learned to exploit what I see as their unique properties, that is, the translucency---the beads could be made just as well on standard effetre transparents. And, to be honest, given the cost, I'd be unlikely to use this glass as a base that would mostly be covered up, anyway. {p}However, as promised, they appear to be entirely compatible with effetre and thompson enamels. And now that I've fulfilled my end of the bargain, at least with this color, I can use the other rod exploring this glass in a way that showcases its translucency. Given that it matches in `feel' many semi-precious stones, as well as the new opal and alabaster austrian crystals (all of which Page just yummies) I can definitely see uses for this glass. {p}Once I get a decent source for it, of course. {p}file created 20oct07; additional writing, 20nov07 {#}